Lawmakers Approve Historic Funding for Public Charter Schools
Stock image of the Tennessee State Capitol
Members of the Tennessee House and Senate approved historic funding for public charter schools in this year’s budget.
The $58.3 billion spending plan approved by both the Senate and House Thursday afternoon included $40 million, allocated per pupil, to support public charter school facilities. That’s double the $20 million approved last year, and it’s in addition to the $22 million currently included in the state's TISA funding formula for charter schools.
Charter Facility Challenges Common
Acquiring adequate facilities is among the biggest challenges for charter schools that are free public schools operated by an organization under a “charter” with a school district or the state. Unlike traditional public schools, charters do not receive local dollars for facilities.
Just this year, a high-performing charter school in Davidson County’s Donelson community announced its closure due to facility challenges, and in recent years, other charter schools have had to delay opening because of struggles to find a location.
Following the vote, the education advocacy organization Tennesseans for Student Success (TSS) applauded lawmakers for their support of schools, which research has found provide students with the equivalent of an additional 34 days in reading and 39 days in math compared to traditional public schools.
"No child should be expected to learn in a school building that's below standard, and the $40 million that lawmakers approved today will help correct the unequal learning environment that too many charter school students experience," said TSS President and CEO Lana Skelo. "This investment doubles the amount allocated last year for charter facilities and truly shows that Tennessee lawmakers are willing to prioritize what’s best for Tennessee students and families even during a tight budget year."
The Tennessee Firefly is a project of and supported by TSS.
Lawmaker Attempts to Strip Funding From Schools in His District
During the budget debate, State Representative John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, proposed multiple amendments designed to strip out the facilities funding or divert some of it to other spending priorities, including a fund for traditional public-school facilities that Clemmons argued should be bigger.
“Now why we’re appropriating this and creating this inequity for people who are profiting from education, I’m unclear,” said Clemmons.
Despite Clemmons’ comments, charter schools are required to be operated by non-profit organizations, and his district includes the Glencliff, Cane Ridge, and Overton school clusters that contain just under a dozen of them.
The Tennessee Firefly researched recent state testing data from these schools and found that charter schools are almost always the top-performing schools within the clusters in Clemmons’ district.
All six charter high schools in those communities outperformed the cluster high school in every subject on last year’s state tests. That includes students at Valor Flagship Academy in south Davidson County’s Overton Cluster, who scored more than 30 proficiency points higher in English language arts and math and 50 points higher in science.
Additionally, six of the seven charter middle schools outperformed every district-run middle school in their cluster across all subjects. That includes students at LEAD Prep Southeast who scored roughly 20 proficiency points higher in ELA and science and more than 30 points higher in math.
